1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile patient life support system, and, more particularly, to a patient life support module adapted for rapid installation within a vehicle and deployment.
2. Prior Art
Mass casualty events, such as wartime battles, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks, often require immediate medical care for large numbers of victims. Emergency treatment of the victims is initiated either at the site where the injury occurred or while in transit to a permanent medical facility. The quality of care, as well as the number of patients that can be cared for, depends greatly on the vehicles tasked with responding to the emergency. Ideally, such vehicles would be equipped with the medical equipment necessary to begin immediate treatment of critical patients, and would also be able to transport multiple patients at a time. It would be additionally beneficial to be able to quickly equip and deploy standard passenger vehicles disposed near the incident site with such medical equipment and patient carrying capacity. Standard (i.e., non-emergency) vehicles that are quickly retrofitted with medical care capabilities are able to transport a larger quantity of victims more efficiently than dedicated ambulances summoned to the site from distant areas.
The best current method for responding to such a catastrophic event is to summon all of the medical response vehicles from a large radius around the affected site, and concentrate them at the location of the mass casualty incident. Due to the wide variety of situations to which ambulances normally respond, they are equipped with a large assortment of medical equipment, much of which is not necessary during these types of emergencies. Much of this equipment takes up considerable space, and is not required for the narrow range of care given during a mass casualty event. Additionally, standard ambulances employ interior organization schemes intended to maximize the comfort and quality of care for only a single patient. The many victims resulting from a mass casualty incident would be best served if vehicles were available that could transport multiple patients at a time. An additional problem with the use of existing ambulances is that by consolidating all of the standard medical response vehicles in a single location, a city's ability handle medical emergencies that occur away from the site of a single major disaster would be seriously diminished. Another problem with this approach is that it is economically impractical for emergency care services to indefinitely maintain fleets of ambulances large enough to respond to mass casualty incidents.
Green, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,401, discloses a deployable chair system for use in patient transport aircraft. In one embodiment, the system includes a deployable chair and upper and lower support members for supporting the deployable chair, the deployable chair being pivotally interconnected to the upper support member. In the deployed configuration, the deployable chair is releasably interconnectable to the lower support member, which is one of a floor platform of the aircraft and a vertically adjustable litter platform. In the stowed configuration, the deployable chair is releasably interconnectable to an upper portion of the aircraft, such as a ceiling surface to allow patients to be received on at least one vertically adjustable litter platform located there below. This system is designed to be permanently installed in an aircraft and would be very difficult to quickly mount in a land vehicle. The system is designed to have certain features, such as adjustable height stretcher supports, that would be unnecessary for mass casualty evacuation scenarios. Such features would only serve to increase weight and the total number of moving parts. Both of which would be a disadvantage for a mobile device.
Morgan, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,339, discloses a multi-tiered litter rack system generally comprising a plurality of support masts arranged on one wall of an emergency vehicle. The masts support a plurality of vertically spaced litters in at least two horizontally spaced positions. The masts enclose vertical adjustment screws which are adapted to independently adjust the vertical position of each end of the litters for controlling the tilt of and vertical spacing between the litters. The multi-tiered liter rack system further includes individual motors associated with each of the respective masts which are operatively connected to the vertical adjustment screws for controlling the vertical position and tilt of each of the litters. Aside from the mechanism for tilting the litters, this system does not allow for the attachment of emergency medical equipment. The system therefore does not provide a complete patient care package.
Holling et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,128, discloses a patient support system comprised of two stretcher supports that are mounted against the wall of an ambulance. The supports are mounted on rails, allowing the height of each end of the stretchers to be independently adjusted. The stretcher supports are also capable of folding flat against the wall of the ambulance. This feature allows the upper stretcher support to be folded back, while the lower support is used as a seat. The back end of the system is capable of pivoting about a vertical axis, in order to increase the ease of loading and unloading. This system is intended to be permanently mounted in a vehicle, and would therefore not be suitable for rapid attachment and detachment.
Other patient support systems for emergency vehicles have been disclosed. Illustrative of such devices are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,370,402, 2,483,025, 2,473,364, 2,480,322, 3,358,300, 4,783,025 and 6,691,952. Not withstanding the aforesaid prior art devices, there remains a need for a modular patient support device for providing emergency care and transport for an injured patient that can be rapidly installed in standard non-emergency utility vehicles such as vans thereby transforming the vehicle into a medical care platform. The device should be modular, lightweight, self contained, and be easily mounted to a wide variety of vehicles. The device should incorporate all of the medical equipment necessary for emergency care, yet not include some of the less critical features and comforts of a standard ambulance.